Yeah, the real estate market is bonkers at the moment. With the interest rate hikes it feels like we're at the peak and it might start to slow down though. Of course, interest hikes are a double-edged sword, even if prices start to fall a little the higher rates mean you'll end up paying as much or more. Slowing down could mean appreciation starts to return to regular levels, and there isn't any real decline in the price of homes. So waiting for it to get better is probably a risky bet.
We just bought a house in Denver (my wife got a new job out there), and the whole process was kind of ridiculous. It's such a competitive market out there that you basically have to make an as-is offer (ie: regardless of what the inspection says you're buying it). And you have to offer significantly over asking, I was tracking the prices of houses we liked for a few months and they sold on average about 15% over asking. The ones we really liked sold up to 30% over. I feel sort of "lucky" to have paid "only" 12% over. But man it would have been nice to do this last year when I could have had a 3% loan rather than 5.5%
Originally Posted by: earthquake